Baby Geniuses?

I've noticed a trend among new mothers that I find a little disheartening. The ones I know are spending large amounts of money on "learning toys," baby computers, CDs and DVDs that promise to turn a baby into a little Einstein---even before the child has learned to speak!

I am against this current trend for several reasons.

First, children need human interaction for optimal learning, not bells, whistles, colorful visuals and loud noise! Many of these gadgets are overstimulating or distracting for a child, so I doubt that optimal learning occurs when these are used.

Children learn best by immersion, when they are happily engaged and are having fun. It is far more enjoyable for a baby to interact with a loving caregiver, than to hypnotically zone in front of the TV, and watch a DVD.

Too much early television actually hinders learning, causing speech delays and perhaps trouble later on in learning how to read.

Active participation is far better than the passive learning of these baby gadgets!

Dr. Maria Montessori discovered that children have definite optimal periods in their development where learning certain concepts and skills is easiest. These windows of opportunity are integrated into her school's curriculum.

Presenting material before a child can developmentally grasp it, is simply a waste of time! For example, children develop gross or large motor skills, before they have fine motor control. You can not successfully teach a child how to write, if they lack the coordination to grasp and fluidly move a pencil. Also it is far more difficult for a child to print, than to write in cursive. The "ball and stick" method of writing letters takes a greater amount of motor control than most young children possess, yet in school they are taught to print first and write in cursive later. Really, it should be the other way around.

So what is the point of putting a child in front of a baby genius video? Are they truly learning, or are they passively absorbing information they can not process?

My son David was born prematurely, and was expected to have developmental and learning lags. I homeschooled him and used the Montessori method when he was very young. At age 11, in 6th grade, he took an 8th grade Iowa Basics standardized achievment test and scored in math and English at the college sophmore level.

He was NOT electronically educated/sedated and I think this made a big difference in his academic progress. I didn't bombard him with information while he was in a passive state. I taught him to actively engage in the learning process and guided his learning along developmentally appropriate lines. This awakened his innate genius and accelerated his learning.

I doubt I would have had the same results if I had him in a crib at age 3 months pushing buttons and watching blinking lights on a baby leapfrog system. It is food for thought anyway...